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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Fish Friendly Water Rules' Impact On the Power Grid with High VRE Levels

Columbia River basin multipurpose reservoirs are operated for hydropower production and many other purposes considering the aquatic habitat of the river basin. Specifically, the river basin fish population is a vital element for the tribal community of the river basin. When conventional thermal power plants are retired, hydropower flexibility balances the wind and solar variability of the power grid and provides grid services to maximize the high renewable power absorption. On the other hand, over-reliance on hydropower could harm the river basin fish habitat. For example, water release pulses during peak electricity demand hours and shorter-term water release variation could harm the fish population. Power grid planners, environmentalists, Columbia Basin tribes, hydro regulators, and water resource planners work together to understand the impacts of Columbia River basin operation in a fish-friendly way in the current power grid and power grid with higher renewable power share. We examine different levels of renewable share in the Western Interconnection to understand the multiple weather years and future climate projection and operating scenario impact on the power grid and water system. We measure power grid impacts for various water resources planning scenarios in terms of total system operating cost, system reliability indicators, changes in wind and solar generation and curtailments, local marginal prices, and revenue for hydropower producers. The study results inform reservoir operating rules decisions from hydropower power producers, system operators, other water users, tribes, environmentalists, and other stakeholders.

environmental↗
DOE OSTI2020

Radiative absorption enhancements by black carbon controlled by particle-to-particle heterogeneity in composition

Black carbon (BC) absorbs solar radiation, leading to a strong but uncertain warming effect on climate. A key challenge in modeling and quantifying BC’s radiative effect on climate is predicting enhancements in light absorption that result from internal mixing between BC and other aerosol components. Modeling and laboratory studies show that BC, when mixed with other aerosol components, absorbs more strongly than pure, uncoated BC; however, some ambient observations suggest more variable and weaker absorption enhancement. We show that the lower-than-expected enhancements in ambient measurements result from a combination of two factors. First, the often used spherical, concentric core-shell approximation generally overestimates the absorption by BC. Second, and more importantly, inadequate consideration of heterogeneity in particle-to-particle composition engenders substantial overestimation in absorption by the total particle population, with greater heterogeneity associated with larger model–measurement differences. We show that accounting for these two effects—variability in per-particle composition and deviations from the core-shell approximation—reconciles absorption enhancement predictions with laboratory and field observations and resolves the apparent discrepancy. Furthermore, our consistent model framework provides a path forward for improving predictions of BC’s radiative effect on climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-shade dryland agrivoltaic conditions enhanced carbon uptake and water-use efficiency in zucchini ( Cucurbita pepo )

Introduction: The increasing global demand for food and energy is intensifying land-use competition. Agrivoltaic systems are a multifunctional land-use approach that vertically integrates the production of agricultural crops and solar power on the same land area. Most food crops are adapted to full-sun conditions, and the physiological responses of these crops to the novel microclimate under solar panels remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that the microclimate beneath the high-density photovoltaic system would influence carbon uptake, water use, and yield outcomes of zucchini summer squash.Methods: We conducted a field experiment in a hot, semi-arid climate on zucchini (Cucurbita pepo). Plants were grown under an agrivoltaic system with a 75% ground cover ratio (GCR) and in a full-sun control plot, each with two irrigation regimes (100 and 50%). We measured leaf-level photosynthesis, microclimate variables, and fruit yield at plant maturity and throughout the growing season.Results: The agrivoltaic array reduced photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) by ~79%, resulting in a cooler (−1.1 °C), more humid environment with higher soil moisture. These microclimatic conditions enhanced midday photosynthesis and daily cumulative carbon uptake. However, fruit yield was consistently lower under the panels, indicating a shift in carbon allocation toward vegetative growth. Photosynthesis was primarily driven by PAR across treatments, while soil moisture significantly influenced photosynthesis only in the control plots, suggesting water limitation was alleviated under the panels.Discussion: These findings highlight a trade-off between improved physiological performance and reduced yield under high-density agrivoltaics. While the system buffered heat and drought stress and improved overall plant function, excessive shade reduced reproductive output. Optimizing panel density or selecting crops cultivated for non-fruit yields will be essential for balancing food production and energy generation in dryland agrivoltaic settings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1992

Interannual variability of solar irradiance over the Amazon Basin including the 1982-83 El Nino Year

Surface solar irradiance was derived over the extended Amazon Basin using AVHRR observations from polar-orbiting satellites during four July months (1983-1986). Observations from the geostationary satellite GOES for July 1983 were also used to assess diurnal effects. Both satellite datasets are part of the Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) B3 product. It was demonstrated that it is now possible to derive long-term surface solar irradiance, which can be useful in climate studies, and that the accuracy of the derived fields is sufficient to detect interannual differences that can exceed at times 70 W/sq m.

Pinker, Rachel T.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Preface for the ILWS Special Issue of JASTP

During the week of October 4-9,2009, about 160 participants from 19 countries met at the Itamambuca resort area of Ubatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil to discuss the "Influence of solar variability on geophysical and heliospheric phenomena" Conference, organized by the International Living With a Star (ILWS) Program of NASA and by the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) of Brazil. This special issue collects 38 papers from that Conference, with 3 papers dealing with solar topics, 12 with interplanetary and cosmic rays,12 with magnetospheric, 9 with the low-latitude ionosphere and 2 with solar terrestrial system and climate. Furthermore six of the review papers presented at that Conference are being published in a special issue of the SpaceScience Reviews journal. The combined ensemble of papers describes the complex series of phenomena that link the Sun to the Earth.

Gonzalez, Walter D.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Variability in observed stable water isotopes in snowpack across a mountainous watershed in Colorado

In this study, isotopic information from 81 snowpits was collected over a 5-year period in a large, Colorado watershed. Data spans gradients in elevation, aspect, vegetation, and seasonal climate. They are combined with overlapping campaigns for water isotopes in precipitation and snowmelt, and a land-surface model for detailed estimates of snowfall and climate at sample locations. Snowfall isotopic inputs, describe the majority of δ18O snowpack variability. Aspect is a secondary control, with slightly more enriched conditions on east and north facing slopes. This is attributed to preservation of seasonally enriched snowfall and vapour loss in the early winter. Sublimation, expressed by decreases in snowpack d-excess in comparison to snowfall contributions, increases at low elevation and when seasonal temperature and solar radiation are high. At peak snow accumulation, post-depositional fractionation appears to occur in the top 25 ± 14% of the snowpack due to melt-freeze redistribution of lighter isotopes deeper into the snowpack and vapour loss to the atmosphere during intermittent periods of low relative humidity and high windspeed. Relative depth of fractionation increases when winter daytime temperatures are high and winter precipitation is low. Once isothermal, snowpack isotopic homogenization and enrichment was observed with initial snowmelt isotopically depleted in comparison to snowpack and enriching over time. The rate of δ18O increase (d-excess decrease) in snowmelt was 0.02‰ per day per 100-m elevation loss. Isotopic data suggests elevation dictates snowpack and snowmelt evolution by controlling early snow persistence (or absence), isotopic lapse rates in precipitation and the ratio of energy to snow availability. Hydrologic tracer studies using stable water isotopes in basins of large topographic relief will require adjustment for these elevational controls to properly constrain stream water sourcing from snowmelt.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Surface Radiation Budget Project: A Look Back and A Look Forward

The NASA Langley Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) project, historically associated with GEWEX, has provided estimates of surface and TOA shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes using International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) cloud properties and radiances as primary input. The first release was in 1995 (Whitlock et al., 1995) at daily 2.5° resolution. Subsequent releases have improved physics, temporal and spatial resolution, as well as increasing the total length of the time series. Release 4 in 2019 (Kummerow et al., 2019) is on a 1° nested grid, with temporal resolutions from 3-hourly to daily and monthly. It originally spanned from July 1983 to December 2017 and has since been extended through 2019. Release 4 uses the ISCCP H series of data, a complete reprocessing which retains more pixels than the previous D series, used in prior SRB versions. SRB data has been used extensively by a wide range of customers, including but not limited to the solar energy community, climate modelers, architects, oceanographers, and the agricultural community. It is an especial feature of SRB that global radiation budget data are available from the 1983 through 2000 period, which is prior to CERES providing alternate data, and then 2000 through near present to provide overlap coverage. Here we use the 36.5 year record of SRB Release 4 to examine the changes in shortwave and longwave fluxes over the period, including the changes in different regions of the globe. We examine energy budget features such as hemispheric symmetry and implied meridional transport of energy. We look at the variability of these features prior to and during the CERES period and compare to later products. We also look at Release 5, currently under development. This version will provide 0.5° resolution. In addition to surface and TOA radiative fluxes it will include fluxes at several atmospheric layers, and some spectral features beyond the broadband shortwave and longwave fluxes in Release 4 and prior. The shortwave algorithm is undergoing a complete change from the Pinker-Laszlo algorithm. Shortwave fluxes will now be calculated from a forward call to the Fu-Liou radiative transfer model as modified by the CERES team (Rose et al., 2006). Input datasets are being improved, including surface properties, atmospheric profiles of temperature and humidity, aerosols, and total solar irradiance. Preliminary results from Release 5 and comparisons to Release 4 will be shown.

Earth Radiation Budget↗
NASA NTRS1999

The Contribution of the Solcon Instrument to the Long Term Total Solar Irradiance Observation

On century time scales, the variation in the total solar irradiance received by the earth is believed to be a major climate change driver. Therefore accurate and time stable measurements of the total solar irradiance are necessary. We present the latest contribution of the SOLar CONstant (SOLCON) instrument to these measurements, namely its measurements during the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH) 3 space shuttle flight, and its results: the verification of the ageing of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and the measurement of the Space Absolute Radiometric Reference (SARR) adjustment coefficients for the Variability of solar IRradiance and Gravity Oscillations (VIRGO) radiometers.

Dewitte, S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Obliquity variation in a Mars climate evolution model

The existence of layered terrain in both polar regions of Mars is strong evidence supporting a cyclic variation in climate. It has been suggested that periods of net deposition have alternated with periods of net erosion in creating the layered structure that is seen today. The cause for this cyclic climatic behavior is variation in the annually averaged latitudinal distribution of solar insolation in response to obliquity cycles. For Mars, obliquity variation leads to major climatological excursion due to the condensation and sublimation of the major atmospheric constituent, CO2. The atmosphere will collapse into the polar caps, or existing caps will rapidly sublimate into the atmosphere, dependent upon the polar surface heat balance and the direction of the change in obliquity. It has been argued that variations in the obliquity of Mars cause substantial departures from the current climatological values of the surface pressure and the amount of CO2 stored in both the planetary regolith and polar caps. In this new work we have modified the Haberle et al. model to incorporate variable obliquity by allowing the polar and equatorial insolation to become functions of obliquity, which we assume to vary sinusoidally in time. As obliquity varies in the model, there can be discontinuities in the time evolution of the model equilibrium values for surface pressure, regolith, and polar cap storage. The time constant, tau r, for the regolith to find equilibrium with the climate is estimated--depending on the depth, thermal conductivity, and porosity of the regolith--between 10(exp 4) and 10(exp 6) yr. Thus, using 2000-yr timesteps to move smoothly through the 0.1250 m.y. obliquity cycles, we have an atmosphere/regolith system that cannot be assumed in equilibrium. We have dealt with this problem by limiting the rate at which CO2, can move between the atmosphere and regolith, mimicking the diffusive nature and effects of the temperature and pressure waves, by setting the time rate of change of regolith storage proportional to the difference between equilibrium storage and current storage.

Tyler, D.↗
NASA NTRS2023

A Surface Radiation Balance Data Set from Siple Dome in West Antarctica for Atmospheric and Climate Model Evaluation

A field campaign at Siple Dome in West Antarctica during the austral summer 2019-2020 offers an opportunity to evaluate climate model performance, particularly cloud microphysical simulation. Over Antarctic ice sheets and ice shelves, clouds are a major regulator of the surface energy balance, and in the warm season their presence occasionally induces surface melt that can gradually weaken an ice shelf structure. This dataset from Siple Dome, obtained using transportable and solar-poweredequipment, includes surface energy balance measurements, meteorology and cloud remote sensing. To demonstrate how these data can be used to evaluate model performance, comparisons are made with meteorological reanalysis known to give generally good performance over Antarctica (ERA5). Surface albedo measurements show expected variability with observed cloud amount, and can be used to evaluate a model's snowpack parameterization. One case study discussed involves a squall with northerly winds, during which ERA5 fails to produce cloud cover throughout one of the days. A second case study illustrates how shortwave spectroradiometer measurements that encompass the 1.6-micron atmospheric window reveal cloud phase transitions associated with cloud lifecycle. Here, continuously precipitating mixed-phase clouds become mainly liquid water clouds from local morning through the afternoon, not reproduced by ERA5. We challenge researchers to run their various regional or global models in a manner that has the large-scale meteorology follow the conditions of this field campaign, compare cloud and radiation simulations with this Siple Dome dataset, and potentially investigate why cloud microphysical simulations or other model components might produce discrepancies with these observations.

cloud remote sensing↗
DOE OSTI2026

The two radiative states of the Arctic atmosphere and their impacts on the surface energy budget of sea ice

The surface energy budget (SEB) is a central regulator of Arctic climate and sea ice evolution, yet its processes remain poorly constrained due to sparse observations and complex, coupled surface-atmosphere interactions. This study leverages year-long measurements from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) to provide the most comprehensive assessment to date of the central Arctic SEB and its modulation by atmospheric variability. Ship- and ice-based observations from October 2019 to September 2020 were used to directly measure or tightly constrain each term of the SEB, leading to exceptional energetic closure with the seasonal snow and ice mass balance. The analysis reveals strong seasonal transitions in atmosphere-surface energy transfer that are modulated by the atmospheric state and constrained by the ability of the surface temperature to respond. Classification of the atmosphere into its two dominant radiative states—the semi-transparent (ST) and opaque (OP)—highlights the central role of synoptic-scale variability in clouds. The ST atmospheric state dominated the long winter ice growth season, with limited cloudiness supporting persistent surface radiative cooling and ice growth. The OP state, associated with liquid-containing or thick ice clouds, became dominant in spring, with the combination of increased solar heating and cloud surface longwave warming driving ice and snow melt. Eddy covariance versus bulk approaches for deriving surface turbulent heat fluxes provide vastly different perspectives on the role of turbulence in modulating the SEB. These results establish a high-quality benchmark dataset for Arctic SEB studies and demonstrate how the balance of atmospheric radiative states exerts a first-order control on the annual evolution of the sea ice. The findings have broad implications for advancing observing technologies, understanding Arctic amplification, improving climate models, and predicting future sea ice change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2021

An Investigation on Seasonal and Diurnal Cycles of TOA Shortwave Radiations from DSCOVR/EPIC, CERES, MERRA-2, and ERA5

Reflected shortwave (SW) solar radiations at the top of atmosphere from Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), Modern Era-Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2), and ECMWF Reanalysis 5th Generation (ERA5) are examined to better under-stand their differences in spatial and temporal variations (seasonal and diurnal cycle time-scale) with respect to the observations from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. Comparisons between two reanalyses (MERRA-2 and ERA5) and EPIC reveal that MERRA-2 has a generally larger deviation from EPIC than ERA5, in terms of the SW radiance and diurnal variability in all seasons, which can be attributed to larger cloud biases in MERRA-2. MERRA-2 produces more ice/liquid water content than ERA5 over the tropical warm pool, leading to positive SW biases in cloud and radiance, while both reanalyses underestimate the observed SW radiance from EPIC in the stratus-topped region off the western coast of US/Mexico in the boreal summer. Himalaya/Tibet region in the boreal spring/summer and the midlatitude Southern Hemisphere in the boreal winter are the regions where MERRA-2 and ERA5 deviate largely from EPIC but their deviations have the opposite sign. Vertical structures of cloud ice/liquid water content explain reasonably well these contrasting differences between the two reanalyses. As two independent observa-ions, CERES and EPIC agree well with each other in terms of the SW radiance maps, showing 2-3% mean absolute errors over the tropical-midlatitudes. The CERES-EPIC consistency further confirms that the reanalyses still have challenges in representing the SW flux and its global distribution. In the CERES-EPIC observation differences, CERES slightly overestimates the diurnal cycle (as a function of local solar time) of the observed EPIC irradiance in the morning and underestimates in the after-noon, while the opposite is the case in the reanalyses.

Reflected shortwave radiance↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA POWER: Providing Analysis-Ready, Cloud-Optimized Data for AI /ML Training and Applications in Earth Science

As global demand for sustainable development grows, the integration of Earth Observation (EO) data into decision making frameworks has become a primary objective for the scientific community. The NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project serves as a bridge between NASA EO data and the specialized needs of the renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure and agroclimatology communities. In this poster presentation we will present an overview of POWER data products and services along with its use in diverse research to decision-making workflows. By providing over 40 years of high-resolution historical, hourly and daily solar and meteorological data, POWER transforms satellite observations and global model reanalysis into actionable, Analysis-Ready Dataset (ARD). Currently, the project delivers over 250 industry-friendly parameters to the users from different NASA datasets like CERES SYN1Deg, MERRA-2, and IMERG alongside downscaled CMIP6 climate model data, fulfilling over 16 million requests from 50,000 unique users monthly. To ensure data quality and traceability, these parameters are rigorously validated against the ground-based observations from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and the Global Surface Summary of the Day (GSOD) – these results will be discussed in the presentation. A newly introduced web-based PaRameter Uncertainty ViEwer (PRUVE) tool will be presented that provides an online validation platform to the users that benchmarks satellite-based and assimilation data products against these surface measurements. To reduce technical barriers to data adoption, POWER data is accessible through RESTful APIs, ESRI ArcGIS Image Services, a web-based Data Access Viewer tool, allowing users to visualize, validate and apply the dataset. For efficient data delivery POWER data is cloud-optimized into Zarr datastore accessible through NASA managed Amazon S3 ensures high-performance allowing users to integrate EO directly into operational pipelines. These customized services will be presented. Use cases from application will be presented from the energy sector - such as for design of generation systems, performance monitoring of solar power plants, in infrastructure sector- optimizing building energy efficiency and thermal comfort, in agriculture – such as driving crop simulation and yield forecasting models to enable climate resilient farming. Furthermore, the shift toward machine learning (ML) in EO research that has positioned POWER as a key provider for training datasets which will be discussed. Use-cases will be presented to showcase how NASA data is enabling the development of predictive tools for climate variability and resource management. The poster will present POWER’s future plans including technology development to enhance data traceability and reproducibility and improving I/O performance to support the rapid integration of new EO products, ensuring that POWER remains a robust scalable backend for the evolving landscape of AI-driven Earth Science. Additionally, POWER is developing an AI Agent and an MCP-Server to enable industry AI-Agentic workflows.

Neha Khadka↗
NASA NTRS2022

Contribution of the Lower Atmosphere to the Day-to-day Variation of Thermospheric Density

In this paper we carried out a numerical experiment using the Specified Dynamics mode of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere and ionosphere eXtension (SD-WACCM-X). One SD-WACCM-X run was with realistic Kp and F10.7 and the other with constant Kp and F10.7. By comparing the day-to-day variability of thermosphere mass density at 300 km (low earth orbit, LEO) and 120 km (reentry level) in these two runs, we find that the density variation at 300 km is mainly driven by geomagnetic and solar forcing while at 120 km it is exclusively controlled by the lower atmosphere. At LEO altitudes, during solar minimum and geomagnetic quiet days, the impact from the lower atmosphere is much smaller than the effect of solar and geomagnetic variations but is not negligible (5–10% vs 20%).

Thermosphere Density↗
NASA NTRS2012

Earth Radiation Imbalance from a Constellation of 66 Iridium Satellites: Climate Science Aspects

The "global warming hiatus" since the 1998 El Nino, highlighted by Meehl et al., and the resulting "missing energy" problem highlighted by Trenberth et al., has opened the door to a more fundamental view of climate change than mere surface air temperature. That new view is based on two variables which are strongly correlated: the rate of change of ocean heat content d(OHC)/dt; and Earth Radiation Imbalance (ERI) at the top of the atmosphere, whose guesstimated range is 0.4 to 0.9 Watts per square meters (this imbalance being mainly due to increasing CO2). The Argo float array is making better and better measurements of OHC. But existing satellite systems cannot measure ERI to even one significant digit. So, climate model predictions of ERI are used in place of real measurements of it, and the satellite data are tuned to the climate model predictions. Some oceanographers say "just depend on Argo for understanding the global warming hiatus and the missing energy", but we don't think this is a good idea because d(OHC)/dt and ERI have different time scales and are never perfectly correlated. We think the ERB community needs to step up to measuring ERI correctly, just as oceanographers have deployed Argo to measure OHC correctly. This talk will overview a proposed constellation of 66 Earth radiation budget instruments, hosted on Iridium satellites, that will actually be able to measure ERI to at least one significant digit, thus enabling a crucial test of climate models. This constellation will also be able to provide ERI at two-hourly time scales and 500-km spatial scales without extrapolations from uncalibrated narrowband geostationary instruments, using the highly successful methods of GRACE to obtain spatial resolution. This high time resolution would make ERI a synoptic variable like temperature, and allow studies of ERI's response to fast-evolving phenomena like dust storms and hurricanes and even brief excursions of Total Solar Irradiance. Time permitting, we will also discuss the emerging view of clear vs. cloudy and its implications for the traditional ERB approach.

Wiscombe, W.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI and S-NPP/OMPS Data Support at GES DISC

The TROPspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P) is the first of the Atmospheric Composition Sentinels by the European Space Agency (ESA) that provides measurements of ozone, NO2, SO2, CH4, CO, formaldehyde, aerosols and cloud at high spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions. The early afternoon orbit of Sentinel-5P mission provides a strong synergy with the U.S. Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite, especially in that the S-NPP Ozone Monitoring and Profiling Suite (OMPS) facilitates high vertically resolved stratospheric and lower mesospheric ozone profiles. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) supports over a thousand data collections in the Focus Areas of Atmospheric Composition, Water & Energy Cycles, and Climate Variability and it is the Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) that is curating both offline Sentinel-5P TROPOMI and S-NPP OMPS Level-1B (L1B) and Level-2 (L2) products. Through its convenient and enhanced tools/services such as OPeNDAP and L2 Subsetting, GES DISC offers air quality remote sensing user communities facile solutions for complex Earth science data and applications. This presentation will demonstrate TROPOMI and OMPS products including earthview radiance, solar irradiance, and currently available L2 datasets, as well as easy ways to access, visualize and subset data. The implementation of the End User License Agreement (EULA) between NASA GES DISC and all data users accessing data at GES DISC will be emphasized as well.

TROPOMI↗
NASA NTRS2019

Coupled Modes of North Atlantic Ocean Atmosphere Variability and the Onset of the Little Ice Age

Hydroclimate extremes in North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean are linked to ocean and atmospheric circulation anomalies in the Atlantic, but the limited length of the instrumental record prevents complete identification and characterization of these patterns of covariability especially at decadal to centennial timescales. Here we analyze the coupled patterns of drought variability on either side of the North Atlantic Ocean basin using independent climate field reconstructions spanning the last millennium in order to detect and attribute epochs of coherent basin-wide moisture anomalies to ocean and atmosphere processes. A leading mode of broad-scale moisture variability is characterized by distinct patterns of North Atlantic atmosphere circulation and sea surface temperatures. We infer a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation and colder Atlantic sea surface temperatures in the middle of the 15th century, coincident with weaker solar irradiance and prior to strong volcanic forcing associated with the early Little Ice Age.

Kevin J Anchukaitis↗